Organized by Shane’s World who hired a professional moderator to keep the roundtable flowing smoothly, attendees found much value in getting key players in one room to identify the remedies — legal or otherwise — that content producers and copyright holders could take to protect their works.
Resulting from the meeting was the formation of an ad-hoc advisory board that meets next week to crystallize ideas and suggestions that came from the meeting. The group, comprised of content producers, is going to begin the process of strategizing and setting some “hard and fast” rules for the organization on paper.
While the meeting was intended to function as the first step to start discussions on an industry-wide response to piracy, it wasn’t intended as a problem-solving session but rather the first in a series of brainstorming sessions designed to formalize a response to the threat that has the support of key content producers and other members of the business.
“I didn’t come to the meeting with any preconceived expectations, because frankly, I didn’t know exactly what it was supposed to accomplish, but I knew it was important to attend and whatever winds up coming out of this important first step I want to be a part of,” Falcon Foto President Jason Tucker told XBIZ after the discussion wrapped. “Ultimately, we may not get together as an entire industry, but the people that attended tonight, I believe, can make an impact and a difference. That’s why I’m here.”
Tucker’s company has filed numerous successful lawsuits against copyright infringers over the past couple years and he expressed relief that other companies might join him in the fight to aggressively police their intellectual copyrights and content from piracy.
“We know what the problem is. This meeting was a collective meeting of the minds to see what steps we could take to combat it on a big scale,” Tucker said.
Many attendees targeted the Internet and torrent sites as a huge problem because of how fast and widespread illegally pirated content gets distributed. One prevailing feeling was if through legal redress torrent sites get shut down, there will be new ones popping up the next day. The Internet presents a global problem not easily solved.
Noted industry attorney Gregory Piccionelli told XBIZ that a prudent way to stymie offending sites is to go after their record keeping — something his firm has done successfully.
“I believe that if this ad-hoc group is set up the right way, it can attract talent; lawyers who will take cases on contingency because we will have an entity that is recognized and means business,” Piccionelli said. “There is no such group like this yet for producers of adult content. My belief is that we have to set something like that up here and we are on our way to doing that.”
Airek, director of Internet operations for Shane’s World, who was integral in the roundtable’s formation said that he was going to begin work on AntiPiracyBoard.com, a website for the industry to use to report content theft. The board is going to be used to timestamp infringement with screenshots along with companies whose advertisements appears next to unauthorized content.
“Ultimately, we need to show all content thieves and pirates out there that we’re willing to put our time and money into an organization that is going to protect our content from being ripped off,” Airek told XBIZ. “Coming off the success of this meeting, I have faith we’re purposely moving in that direction.”
Attendees included Hush Hush Entertainment's Andrew S, AIM's Sharon Mitchell, legendary director Andrew Blake, adult industry attorneys Clyde DeWitt and Allan Gelbard, New Sensations’ Rhonda K, Red Light District's Jon Berg, Matrix Content’s Norman Bentley, BlazingBucks’s Mark Schecter, Lightspeed Cash's Steve Lightspeed, TheContentStore.com’s J$tyle$, AsiaDivaGirls.com, Digital Playground, AAA News' Sid Grief, Adam & Eve Pictures’ Mischa Allen and representatives from anti-piracy groups GAPA and AICO.
